Product piracy is a worldwide problem. It is estimated that over 5% of all world trade is in counterfeit goods, adding up to around $250 billion per year. The product piracy affects both physical products, such as watches, spare parts and medicine, as well as non-physical products, such as music and computer software. However, in some cases, the non-physical products are wrapped in a physical package or stored on some sort of physical media, for example, music on a CD, whereby also non-physical products in some cases may be seen as physical products.
In order to overcome this problem a number of different technical solutions for checking the authenticity of a product has been developed. Such a solution is, for example, a bar code system connected to a database, in which individual information for concerned items is held. However, barcodes can easily be copied. Furthermore, holding information individually for a great number of items in a variety of countries requires a lot of administration in order to be updated, because of this, other types of technical solutions, not requiring a central administration, have been developed.
In the American U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,619, such a solution is presented. More particularly, the solution comprises an interrogatable tag attached to the item. Further, the item includes visible indicia for comparison with secret non-duplicable information stored in the tag designating authenticity.
Though solutions have been presented within the area, the problem with counterfeit goods still remain. More particularly, the problem is that there are no solutions available which fulfill the demands of handiness, cost-effectiveness and high security.